Joliet gets $3.9 million to adapt to I-80 bridge replacement

The state is providing Joliet with almost $4 million to develop a plan for neighborhoods underneath the Interstate 80 bridge and carry it out.

The Interstate 80 improvement project through Joliet includes a replacement of the two bridges that span the Des Plaines River.

Replacing the aging bridges is seen as a must by local officials.

But it also means displacing residents in two older neighborhoods on both side of the river.

The Joliet City Council on Tuesday approved an intergovernmental agreement with the Illinois Department of Transportation that provides $400,000 to develop a plan for the communities below the bridges and promises another $3.5 million to carry it out.

City officials commented at a Monday workshop meeting for the council that the agreement reflects a new way of doing businesses for the state when it comes to interstate projects that displace local neighborhoods.

“Its something we wouldn’t have seen decades ago,” interim City Manager Rod Tonelli said.

“We’ve been tapped as a better local connection to help get the plan implemented,” Tonelli said of the new agreement.

IDOT will build two new bridges – one going east and one going west – before eventually tearing down the bridges that now carry I-80 over the Des Plaines River.

Little known to the motorists who use those bridges, there are neighborhoods below where 75 houses and one major business will be displaced by the new configuration. The new bridge will take up a portion of the land now occupied by an Ozinga road construction operation.

The new bridge construction also will take up land occupied by residents on the east and west sides of the Des Plaines River.

Joliet Community Development Director Eva-Marie Tropper said the planning process “absolutely” will involve the community as the city prepares to get going ahead of bridge construction.

“They want to start construction on the bridge in 2026,” Tropper said.

She said the city involvement is the next step in a process in which IDOT has previously met with local residents three times.

Those meetings have led to three goals being set for future community improvements, Tropper said. They are:

• a pathway connecting residents to the south to Varnado Park, which is located off McDonough Street near the Des Plaines River.

• traffic-calming devices on Water Street.

• new sidewalks.

Other neighborhood improvements will be determined by the state-funded study, Tropper said.